Just a Dream
by Darlin
Summary: Well, the married years were a nightmare for me, not even going to lie. But to Ororo it was just a dream and to Logan, well, he's going to make sure it never has a chance of coming true. RoLo!


**Just a Dream – by Darlin**

 **-xox-**

It was the sound of a long, high pitched, terrified scream that woke Ororo up.

"I am not the queen of Wakanda!" she cried as she shot up in bed.

Her heart was racing and her hands clutched at the sheet beneath her even as she realized where she was. Looking around her dim room slowly she saw her sheet had fallen to the floor, her floor in her room. She was safe at home, safe with her family the X-Men. She took a few deep, steadying breaths, trying to stop her body from shaking.

"It's alright, it's alright, Ororo you're not the queen of Wakanda, you're not the queen of Wakanda," she whispered.

"The queen of Wakanda? Ya gotta be kiddin' me," huffed a gruff voice as her door burst opened and the lights came on. "What kinda nightmare were ya havin' darlin?"

"Is she okay, Logan?" Kurt asked from outside her room and Ororo could smell his brimstone and hear other concerned voices asking questions from down the hall.

"Nightmare is all, go back to bed, Kurt – everyone go back ta sleep, she ain't in trouble," Logan called out.

Ororo wanted to laugh but the dream – or nightmare as Logan better described it – had just been so real.

"Hey, darlin' you are okay right?" he asked as he came further into the room.

"Turn the light off please."

He noticed that she was just in a bra and panties and was actually shaking as if she were cold. He turned quickly, hit the switch then hurried to her.

Ororo looked at the short, hairy man, shirtless and for that matter as pajama-less, as was she. How alike they were in so many ways she found herself thinking, the dream and the shaking fast ebbing with him there.

Logan, just in boxers, settled beside her and took her hand in his. The way she'd looked at him when he'd turned the light on had him worried. Storm didn't scare easy but she'd looked down right terrified.

"You okay darlin?"

"I'm . . . I'm fine – disorientated a little perhaps. It was so real." She laughed now, the dream nothing she wanted to discuss or even recall. And yet she wondered why she'd had such a bizarre dream of an old acquaintance she'd barely seen a handful of times over the years.

"I have no deep longing for a boy I met long ago," she whispered as if to reassure herself.

"You were dreamin' about some kid then?" Logan demanded.

"T'Challa," she replied with a shrug.

"T'Challa ain't no boy," Logan snarled, irritated.

Ororo looked away, almost sorry she'd said anything.

"You sorry you left Africa, that it? Ya wished you'd stayed there . . . with him?"

Ororo recalled how the Black Panther had degraded Logan in front of her, calling him a Troll, how the name calling had shown his true colors. Yes, she'd been happy to see an old friend, an old acquaintance she supposed she really should call him. But his behavior had been all too familiar, too much the boy, nothing like a prince, nowhere near a man's. No, she wasn't sorry she hadn't remained in Africa. Her place was with the X-Men, with Logan at her side. She glanced at him now and realized he had and probably always would be there for her, just like now.

"Maybe I shoulda kept my mouth shut, let you stay there for a while," he said, his voice quieter now because he still felt some guilt over what he'd done.

"No, you were right to speak your mind. The X-Men needed me more than I needed to explore my past at that time. Africa will always be there but, well . . ."

There was a long silence then. Logan let her hand go. He felt rotten. The only reason he'd talked her out of staying in her mother's homeland was because he'd wanted her with him. Thinking of her staying behind in Africa with T'Challa had made him more than angry. He'd been down right near berserker jealous. Thinking about it even now made him sick to his stomach. He was the one who needed her though he'd used the X-Men as the reason she shouldn't have stayed. He'd been completely selfish but he knew he hadn't been wrong. If she'd stayed maybe she never would've come back or maybe it might've been years before she came back and then – then what?

"Tell me about yer dream," he finally said.

She sighed, wishing to forget and yet desiring to what – please him by obeying?

He looked at her quizzically. Her expression was hard to read, she looked as puzzled as he felt only not for the same reason he knew. She'd had a bad dream while he was in love with his teammate, oftentimes his boss. How was he supposed to handle that?

"It was silly but, oh, Logan you wouldn't believe it! I-I married T'Challa . . ." here she paused as Logan made a choking sound. She thought he wanted to say something but when he didn't she went on. "After the wedding we went on a world tour and met other heads of states. It was . . . bizarre, that's the only way I can describe it. Doctor Doom was one of the so called dignitaries that we met with, of all people! And the Inhumans, Black Bolt and Medusa, and we even met with Namor. We were wined and dined and we fought . . ."

"You and the Panther fought?"

"No, no he and I didn't fight, we fought Dr. Doom . . . T'Challa and I – we . . . um . . . we seemed to have a lot of sex."

Logan balked which warmed her very soul.

"We . . . um, we joined the Fantastic Four when Sue and Richard took a break . . ."

"Ya gotta be kiddin' me!" Logan whooped.

"It was just a dream, Logan, not real."

"Ya sure got a vivid imagination."

"They say you can learn from your dreams," she remarked.

"Yeah? So what else did you do on yer honeymoon or were ya both old an' gray after all the sex by time ya were fightin' with Johnny an' Benji?"

She giggled. "We'd finished our honeymoon. It was a whirlwind courtship, well, just sex on a plane really, and a wedding where you came and quite a lot of super heroes came."

"Yeah, right! Like I'd be at yer weddin' ta that dufus!"

"I'm glad to hear you say that, Logan."

"Well, it ain't like he deserves you or anything. Yer too good fer him – fer anyone."

"I appreciate that, Logan."

"Yeah. Well . .. yeah."

"So then he left me," she said with a chuckle.

"Left you? Where? With Doom? Doom always did have the hots fer you ya know."

She laughed and his laughter joined hers. They both remembered the first time they'd encountered Doom as a fairly new group. Sometimes the others teased her about villain's finding her so desirable. She didn't know why it happened like that but she knew all she could do was laugh about it because who knew why men did what they did?

"So did you divorce the idiot and take off with Doom, that what made you wake up screamin', glad ta be rid of the Panther?"

"Did I scream?" Ororo asked through her laughter.

"Yeah! Why do ya think I came runnin'? You woke everyone up!"

"Oh."

"So, what happened that was so bad it made ya scream, darlin'? Where'd he leave you?"

"I was almost losing a fight with . . ."

"Losing? What kinda powers did ya have in this dream of yers – or did the Panther an' you switch powers an' that's why you was losin'?"

She let out a loud guffaw. "Oh, Logan you never ceases to make me laugh and you always make me feel better."

"Yeah? Well good. So what happened darlin'?"

"Oh, well you see we were fighting each other, T'Challa and I. He'd divorced me without telling me after he'd left me so he could go run a diner in Hell's kitchen and . . ."

"What?"

"I know, it sounds absurd but that's how dreams are. I'd gone back home, here, back to the X-Men and you – I mean, um, well the next thing I knew we were seriously fighting each other. He grabbed me by my cloak when I was in the air!

"I was so angry with him that I actually wanted to kill him. I felt so much hatred and it all just exploded and you know when you're dreaming and you think you can't take any more or you're going to be hurt by someone or something, perhaps like falling or in my case, being yanked by my cape, and that startles you awake? Well that's what happened to me. I guess I was a little in shock afterward."

"Wow, yeah, I can see why! That was a crazy ass dream, Ro!"

"Mmm, don't I know it," she said with a little laugh. "So, you see, I am not the Queen of Wakanda because he divorced me by proxy or through the panther god or some such idiotic nonsense and then for good measure he tried to beat me up just to give me that special cherry on the top kind of loving," she said with a wry chuckle even though she shuddered slightly at the memory.

Logan frowned but quickly put an arm around her. She leaned against him, her head on his chest and she sighed contentedly.

"It was just a bad dream, darlin' nothin' ta get all upset over."

"I'm not upset – not now. I was horrified when I woke up but I'm just glad it was just a dream."

"Nightmare more like it darlin'," Logan chuckled.

"So true. I couldn't imagine marrying a man I barely know and barely even saw over the years, I mean just out of the blue!"

"Guess ya were married ta the wrong guy."

"Definitely the wrong guy," she said then covered her mouth and yawned. "I am so tired."

"Yeah?"

After a little bit he heard her snore softly and he grinned. He felt all kinds of things just then as he held her – happy, satisfied, relieved. She snored again and he looked down at her and kissed her softly on her forehead. She moaned slightly and snuggled closer to him. He'd never imagined that someone as regal as Ororo would snore but it never bothered him. It wasn't heavy or anything, just a little soft kind of a snort. It cracked him up actually, especially when she claimed she didn't snore. But he knew she only did it when she was exhausted. And after a dream like that he knew she had to be exhausted. Married to T'Challa! And he'd been at their wedding too! What kind of – well, there was no accounting for dreams. Still, he wondered what had brought it on. It didn't seem to be some unconscious longing thank God!

He held her a little tighter and stifled his own yawn. He'd loved taking in her almost naked body when he'd first come into the room but when he'd sat down on the bed he'd let that go because she was so upset. And as she'd talked he'd been listening but he'd also been thinking about how much he loved her body and everything about her. He knew he should just tell her how he felt and maybe even pop the question but it was a huge step and it would change everything – if she said yes. He didn't know if she would or not.

He hoped she would, kind of thought she might, but he remembered Forge. She'd told him that Forge had taken his proposal back and left her but he knew Forge was still crazy about her and if she'd really been in love with Forge all she'd had to do was go after him. It wasn't any harder than that, 'cept maybe giving up a little pride. And Ro could even do that if she had a good reason. Nope, she'd never loved Forge like that. But did she love him like that?

He still felt a little guilty knowing he'd allowed himself to be selfish in order to keep her with him. But what if she wanted to go back to Africa and stay again? What if this dream started her thinking? He couldn't offer her what T'Challa could. What woman wouldn't want to be a queen? He wasn't going to lie and say the Panther wasn't alright, maybe even handsome to some women, maybe even to Ororo. She was dreaming about him after all, had to be a reason. What if T'Challa did want to marry her and came after her? What if . . . ?

He shook his head firmly. "Nope, ain't gonna happen on my watch!" he growled. "I ain't never gonna let you go darlin'. It's you an' me together for the rest of our lives!"

"Mmmmm, I will hold you to that, bub – you and me . . . together . . . for the rest of our lives," Ororo purred as she moved off of him and laid down, pulling him with her.

"Damn straight!" he said, glad he'd finally said something but knowing there was so much more to say, to tell her. And then he chuckled. She was snoring again.

"Damn I love the hell outta ya, Ro," he whispered. And though he couldn't see it she smiled just before sleep overtook her.

 **~Finis~**

 **A/N** – Oh yeah! Oh yeah! I knew that marriage wasn't going to last from the first moment I heard what they were planning. I really did, but boy did that phase tear me up! That Quesada! And now Black Panther and Storm are going to be together again! A new all black team. What to think? I love the idea kind of, love all the characters, even T'Challa when he's written right. I wonder how they'll get past the animosity. Well, I guess they already did though he wasn't pleased that she was dating the man she was dating before they got together – Logan! And too, it's a different world after Secret Wars. Still, I'm on the fence about this. Maybe I'll get the first issue, go from there.

Btw, I wrote this ages ago during the period which I like to forget when Storm was married. So, when I was looking for another story that I'd written ages ago, and still can't find, I found this one plus another one and decided to post them both. This one's a short one shot so is up first. The other one is a much longer one shot I need to tweak. I tweaked this and found that I had a bit of fun with it. It kind of makes me happy reading it. Maybe it might make you happy too. Well, I'm out. Sorry for ranting, can't help it for that era. But thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed!


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